In recent decades,trust has been in decline globally. The OECD reported in 2017 that,on average,less than half of OECD countries’ citizens (42 per cent) have trust in their national government,a decline of three percentage points since 2007. This is consistent with research by the Pew Research Centre on the decline in public trust in the US government over six decades and similar research by the Australian Electoral Survey,which reported declining levels of trust in government over more than two decades.
Yet in ground-breaking research released this week,the Australia Institute records that,at a time when the world is facing a crippling pandemic,trust in government in six OECD countries is at an all-time high. People in Australia,New Zealand,the United Kingdom,Italy,South Korea and the US are looking to their governments to lead their national responses to the COVID-19 virus and the economic recovery that must follow.
While the coronavirus is affecting different nations around the world in very different ways,the one unifying response is the high level of trust in government. New Zealanders were the most positive about their government’s overall reaction,with 83 per cent support. On this count,Australians were the second most positive,with seven out of 10 saying the government’s response had been good or better.
The strong levels of support for government in Australia and New Zealand say much for the effectiveness of the safety nets established in both antipodean nations. Perhaps those supports can help to explain why Australians recorded such high levels of satisfaction with government while also being the most fearful of future job losses and the equal most likely,along with the US,to report having already lost their employment.
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Government was the most likely source of advice to be deemed trustworthy across the nations surveyed,with information coming from family and friends the second most trusted source. Even in the US,where the lowest rate of confidence in official advice was recorded,three in five said they trusted what the government said.
And when it comes to which institution is best trusted to lead the economic recovery from this point,government was the overwhelming favourite in all the nations surveyed.
These results show clearly that governments can win trust in a time of crisis,but history suggests sustaining trust over an extended period of time is a far greater challenge.